FORTING UP IN CENTRAL KANSAS
n the summer of 1864, near the junction of the Smoky Hill stage road and the Fort Larned–Fort Riley military road in Kansas, troopers of the 7th Iowa Cavalry under 2nd Lt. Allen Ellsworth crafted a temporary outpost of dugouts and log structures from which to protect traders and travelers—not from Confederate troops but from raiding Sioux, Cheyennes and Arapahos. Two years later the post was renamed in honor of Brig. Gen. Charles G. Harker,
